Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn Rovers manager, has blamed a handful of his most experienced players for the club's run of eight Premier League games without a win. Morten Gamst Pedersen and El-Hadji Diouf both scored in the 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Monday, but Allardyce criticised both players for a perceived lack of consistency.

"Some of the players have not been quite up to the level that they should be. That is your Mortens, your Dioufys, Jason Roberts, Benni McCarthy," Allardyce said. "That's why we haven't found the goalscorers we might have found."

Allardyce believes finding someone to emulate the success of Sunderland's 13-goal striker Darren Bent – who scored twice against Blackburn on Monday – will be key to his side's ability to haul themselves away from the relegation zone.

The Blackburn manager added: "We've got to find someone to start putting the ball in the net on a regular basis because it's going to make a big difference for us in turning our draws into victories." Blackburn lie 13th in the League but have struggled to find goals with the midfield player David Dunn the club's leading scorer on five.